People are living in the golden age of technology. This century has seen the kind of technology that has never been thought of as possible. People finally were able to make a virtual life possible. The world of social media changed everything. The way people look at things changed because of it. Many call it a revolution that surprised the whole world.
People were very slow in communicating with other people earlier. It was either through the help of letters that took an awful lot of time to reach someone and then get back a reply.
Everyone wanted the communication gap to somehow fill faster.
And then came the social media. Not only did it remove the communication gap, but it also changed the entire manner in which people communicated. Social media has made people communicate more through pictures than words.
But that is a different story. Like mentioned, many said that the birth of social media was a revolution. At the same time, quite a few people also said that it was a revolution that should never have happened! People got to face the dark side of social media which they could not cope up with. People saw others getting mental stress because of it. Some were even diagnosed with depression. Could social media cause depression to someone? Is it that powerful?
Most of the people are aware of how powerful it is and also how it can impact a person. Some people are not aware of the fact that social media can adversely affect a person’s brain, and some people just choose to ignore it so that they don’t feel guilty for using social media applications. Social media is particularly bad because of the dopamine effects it provides to the brain. Be it a child or an adult, everyone is trapped by the dopamine effect that social media brings out. Every time a person like’s one’s posts or comments on it, people feel positive and dopamine is released in their brains. Dopamine helps a person in feeling good.
One of the most strange things that social media was able to discover in people’s behavior was that people care a lot about what others think of them. Everyone is waiting for other’s validations. Some people still say that they don’t care about the number of likes or comments they get on their posts, but the truth is everyone does, or they won’t keep going back and looking at the engagement rate. It is unreal for almost anyone not to get affected by social media and other people’s validations because then it would mean they are not there for social activity at all. Social media has the word social, which itself means that it has to be about others most of the times.
But that isn’t a very bad thing at times.
The bad things start happening in social media when people get too much attached to it and make it one of the most important parts of their life. Then they start caring too much about what others think of them and how others see them, and they start acting like how others may want them to act.
People lose originality and don’t say or do what they want to do, and this will bring out a negative side in anyone. If a person can’t be themselves for a prolonged period, how will they be able to stay happy? They simply can’t!
One more thing that people do in social media when they get depressed is that they compare their lives with others in the virtual world. They see others posting beautiful pictures of their vacations and their partners, and that makes people feel like they should have the same stuff and happiness too, but then when they realize they don’t have it, they feel sad and unsatisfied with their lives. This must be stopped. It is because of one simple reason. People are not what they show they are in social media. Sure it is a part of them, but the part which they choose to share, and the part which is best in their lives.
No one shares their bad stuff in social media, no one want’s to take the risk of looking uncool in front of others.
But all of this can be avoided. People can make conscious efforts to get out of the depression that social media has induced. It is not that hard. There are simple methods that anyone can use to avoid depression from social media. People should act more authentic while they are posting stuff in their accounts and at the same time, whatever they are saying should mean something. Most of all, people should learn to limit their time on social media. If someone is spending a large part of their time in the virtual world, chances are, he/she will be affected by it. So spending lesser time on it can help, or even one can choose to take a prolonged period of break from social media. Also having a defined purpose for being on social media helps. If a person can identify their wants and needs from the social media platforms they are engaging in, they can decide what they want out of it and it will help them in avoiding the unnecessary overwhelming noise that is present on the social media world. One can also choose lesser applications and platforms to engage in. People should go with the platforms or applications that meet their needs and where they think they will be able to meet like-minded people.